How soon is too soon to give up on a game?

[Weresquirrel]

It does vary from game to game, but to be frank, some games just exude an aura of incompetence that you just know won't go away regardless of how long you play it. If there's something wrong with the core mechanics or look/feel of the game, then it's unlikely to get better with more play time.

If it's a story based game then I'd say give it a bit more of a chance than one that sells itself more on the gameplay. I'm more prepared to give up quickly on a sandbox or action game than an RPG for example.

But as others have said, a good game will know how to sink its claws into you from the get go. Either with setting up an intriguing narrative that demands further exploration or having fun and intuitive gameplay from the get go.

 

[maninahat]

It's a good question because there are plenty of games that put you off within the first hour, but get really good immediately after. For example, Hitman Blood Money has a rubbishy opening tutorial mission that railroads you the whole way into playing in a way you may not have wanted to in previous Hitman titles. But as soon as it is over, you can do whatever you like, and the game becomes great.

Then there are Bioware games, which have their painfully boring, formulaic "first world" which you are stuck with for a few hours. Eventually the game lets you go wherever you like, but not before severely testing your patience.

But then again there are games like Velvet Assassin, which I tossed away after the first level, when it became apparent the design was so bad it couldn't conceivably improve in any way.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

As soon as you realise you're not having fun really. You're under no obligation to pour 'X' hours into a game before passing on it. Games are intended for fun and enjoyment, and if you find that a game is delivering neither of these things then call it quits.

 

[Saelune]

In all honesty, as soon as you don't enjoy it or see joy coming. I just think if that's the case though, you shouldn't go around bashing it if you wont give it more time. Too many people say "the game is bad" when they just don't like it. I don't like plenty of good games, just because its not my style of game.

That said, I've had numerous examples of trudging through what seems like not fun to become a huge fan. I had trouble with Dishonored at first too, but gave it some time and got over 50 hours out of a "only 6 hour" game. Hitman, Splinter-Cell, Prototype, even my favorite game ever, Morrowind, had slow starts for me when it comes to enjoying them.

 

[Mister K]

You should give up on a game if it is not engaging you anymore. Why force yourself to play something to play something you don't like?

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

This is such a subjective thing, everybody has their thresholds of how much 'bad game' they can handle. I've even had it go the other way, been really enjoying a game and then hit a point where it just pisses me off so much from tedium I just go fuck it. Dead Rising 1 and 2, with their trekking back and forth from save points to bosses was horrible. I nearly put down Dark Souls because of this, but I found *that* game much better constructed so I stuck with it.

I've also put down Project CARS because it was such a disappointment, I guess I just expected too much out of it. But I gave it a fair go, about 5 or 6 hours. You don't need to justify yourself, sometimes you just don't feel like playing a game any more. It's not like sitting through a movie with your girlfriend or someshit.

I played Torchlight 1 through a couple times, for some reason Torchlight 2 just didn't keep me as hooked, despite being a damn near flawless game. Picked up the hack'n'slash RPG's again recently with Grim Dawn, it's been awhile so we'll see if that rekindles the flame.

TLR - It's up to you and only you to answer that question, man.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

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Sure, you shouldn't be playing a game that's not fun. But how reasonable should you be? I mean we all loved Skyrim and hitting bandits with axes, but I don't think any of us enjoyed Smithing and Enchanting grinding. Should we not have done that?
Doom 3 for example is pretty fun, but its loading times are ass. Is that enough to drop it?

Should all games be like that Bikini Samurai Squad where even the loading screens have zombies to kill?
Should there be a ratio instead of an absolute? 2 funs to every 1 unfun?

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

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Sure, you shouldn't be playing a game that's not fun. But how reasonable should you be? I mean we all loved Skyrim and hitting bandits with axes, but I don't think any of us enjoyed Smithing and Enchanting grinding. Should we not have done that?
Doom 3 for example is pretty fun, but its loading times are ass. Is that enough to drop it?

Should all games be like that Bikini Samurai Squad where even the loading screens have zombies to kill?
Should there be a ratio instead of an absolute? 2 funs to every 1 unfun?

I think it's down to each person's individual tastes rather than there being a quantifiable cut-off point. You mentioned Doom 3, so let's take that as an example. Two people both playing Doom 3 will have the same issue with loading times, but one person, who really likes Doom 3, may persevere through them whereas the other person, who isn't really clicking with the story/plot/whatever, may decide that the loading times are the final nail in the coffin and sack it off. I think that - at least for me - it comes down to a point where the cons outweigh the pros, and depending on how you feel overall about a title means that some people are willing to forgive more (or less) on a game by game basis.

 

[Creator002]

Generally, I give a game a chance up to the refund cut off. If it's not appealing by then, I give it the ass. Even in those circumstances, however, it's about an hour. If I can't have some fun in an hour, then I don't consider it worth playing further.
The first Mass Effect was like that for me, but I'd already gone past the refund date and kept it. I'm glad I did, but that's rare.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I have a horrible, horrible problem. If I've paid for it, I feel compelled to complete it. Even if I thoroughly hate it.

Dishonored is one of those games. A friend of mine recommended it to me, telling me that it'd be the perfect game for me since I love games that let me sneak around knocking everyone unconscious and stealing all their stuff. I bought it during the next Steam sale after the recommendation... and hated it. Holy shit is this game overrated. The story is slow, the characters are completely unmemorable (I played this game just a few months ago, and I can't remember any of the characters' names other than Corvo), and worst of all, the gameplay is ridiculously easy even on the hardest difficulty.

My first (and likely only) playthrough of this game I went completely non-lethal, no alerts, and none of that magic bullshit that seems to do nothing but make the game somehow even easier. I didn't even need to savescum it was such a joke. I found out after-the-fact that playing the game the way I did actually reduces the amount of enemies you encounter later in the game, making it even easier, where as if I'd been slaughtering them throughout the game the number of enemies encountered later on would increase. What the fuck? In what universe does THAT make any sense? Slaughtering everyone results in more people? Leaving people alive and well results in fewer people? Did I miss something here that makes that logic sensible?

Yeah... I don't think I'll be picking up Dishonored 2.

That said, recently I did encounter a game that I very nearly abandoned. Undertale. I didn't pay for it, it was gifted to me, so I briefly considered abandoning it because I didn't spend any money on it... but I couldn't do it, because it was a gift. I like almost everything about this game... except the actual game parts. I HATE the combat (or... non-combat, I guess? Non-lethal, again). The boss fights in this game annoy the hell out of me to the point where three times now I've stopped playing the game for weeks at a time. Still haven't beaten it yet, and will probably give it another shot this weekend. I've been told that I'm pretty close to the end.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

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I had remembered there was a ZP of Dishonored so I went back to watch it. Yeah apparently there are good/bad endings, and the game expects, having given you a knife, a gun, crossbow and a bunch of dark magic powers to basically use none of them and only do stealth KOs to get the good ending.

Maybe its not a great example of a game that takes time to get started.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

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Yeah, I got the "best" ending while my friend got the "worst." Going by what he's told me about how the game ended for him, I honestly can't see myself bothering to play it again to see it. They're both pretty unsatisfying since they both assume that you care at least a little bit about the world and the characters, which never really clicked with me.

Also, I highly doubt that Dishonored 2 is going to actually take which ending you got into account, making it even more unsatisfying if you chose the "wrong" way to play the game. That's purely assumption, though.

I should probably clarify though that I don't think it's a bad game. It's no Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, there are things that it definitely does do quite well. I found that the actual gameplay is pretty smooth, I never really encountered much in the way of glitches, and the visual style is occasionally interesting. I don't regret having played it... it's just not really the right game for me.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Anywhere between 2 and maybe 5 hours for longer form or more complex games. Unless the game is seriously lacking in quality or is generally not my thing, I won't give a game any less than 2 hours. Sometimes I find playing through the first hour than restarting helps me get to grips with things. I've done that for Dark Souls, GalCiv, and I'm giving Morrowind another go to see how much I can tolerate the mechanics to experience the rest of it.

 

[OpticalJunction]

Around half an hour. That's enough time for me to get used to the controls and get an idea of the gameplay. the only exception is RPGs which take a while to get off the ground.

 

[Pyrian]

Yeah apparently there are good/bad endings, and the game expects, having given you a knife, a gun, crossbow and a bunch of dark magic powers to basically use none of them and only do stealth KOs to get the good ending.

Not really. You practically have to work for the bad ending in Dishonored; you can kill all (or almost all) of the guards if you spare the target, or vice versa. It's not like Bioshock where harvesting even one Little Sister locks you into the bad ending.

 

[Saelune]

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Sure, you shouldn't be playing a game that's not fun. But how reasonable should you be? I mean we all loved Skyrim and hitting bandits with axes, but I don't think any of us enjoyed Smithing and Enchanting grinding. Should we not have done that?
Doom 3 for example is pretty fun, but its loading times are ass. Is that enough to drop it?

Should all games be like that Bikini Samurai Squad where even the loading screens have zombies to kill?
Should there be a ratio instead of an absolute? 2 funs to every 1 unfun?

Id say if you get mad, stop. If you're just kinda not into it or bored, maybe there can still be something to find. I say give everything in it you can a try. Ive also had it backfire where I kept playing. Like Ark which was super tedious. It got a bit better when the server host upped everything, but it was only sometimes fun. (Though a lot of what sucked was the people I played with too).

Things out of your control like performance issues and loading screens are different. Even I could have atleast marginaly enjoyed Sonic 06 if it didn't take a friggin year to do a mission.

Short Answer: Mad = Stop.

 

[CaitSeith]

I got bored playing Mass Effect in my first time. I admit that it took me a couple of hours before I stopped and said "screw this". But I gave it a second chance several months later; and I enjoyed it much more.

I having the same experience with Deux Ex (the original). I'll give it a retry later, because I keep hearing good things about it. Also with Assassin's Creed. My cousin is a fan of the series, but I tried it once and I wasn't hooked up at all.

I think it has to do with what you are expecting to get from the game. People sometimes aren't good comparing games they love (some have the tendency of comparing games with other popular but unrelated ones, just because they want the game the like to sound awesome). Basically, don't let hype and false expectations get you, and you'll rarely give up on a game.

 

[CaitSeith]

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Sure, you shouldn't be playing a game that's not fun. But how reasonable should you be? I mean we all loved Skyrim and hitting bandits with axes, but I don't think any of us enjoyed Smithing and Enchanting grinding. Should we not have done that?
Doom 3 for example is pretty fun, but its loading times are ass. Is that enough to drop it?

Should all games be like that Bikini Samurai Squad where even the loading screens have zombies to kill?
Should there be a ratio instead of an absolute? 2 funs to every 1 unfun?

That reminds me a video a watched about extrinsic vs. intrinsic value in games. Why are you playing this part of the game? Because is it a requirement to continue? Or because it is good by itself? Is the reward better than the experience itself? If so, is it even worth it? Will it ever be worth it?

The conclusion in the video was that if the answer to the last question is no, then it's better to give up and play something that has a yes for an answer (at least for the video's creator).

 

[Trunkage]

You stop when the world you play in stops making sense. For example, in Wasteland 2 you take a guy out of jail to help you. Your boss is cranky if you don't bring him back. There is no penalty or consequences if you do anything with him and your boss doesn't bring it up again. Allegedly this is an RPG, but maybe my understanding of RPG is different to everyone else, because it definitely isn't. I loved Fallout 1 and wanted something like that again. I heard it was good and pushed through many boring parts but I immediately stopped playing this game as soon as I found out about this.

You stop when the sequel poops on the original's story. Fallout 2 (although most people reckon its Fallout 3, the canon went stupid with the second)

And lastly when there are too many bugs. Looking at you Baulder's Gate. Although I sometimes go back to try and keep going.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I think the quickest I've ever dropped a game Civilization: Beyond Earth. I wasn't interested in it from the footage I'd seen, but it was gifted to me by an over-hyped friend. I played for 2 hours, trying to be entertained, but the leaders have no personality, and everything feels really gloomy. Surprisingly, I actually gave the game more time than the friend who bought it for me.